Thursday, January 23, 2014

The NSA and Silicon Valley

I’m working on a round-up today of the money spent by tech firms during the past year on privacy lobbying efforts. Do you happen to have any thoughts on the trend of companies spending more to influence lawmakers, and on them focusing a lot of their attention in recent quarters on NSA surveillance reform issues?

For any company that Americans entrust with the most personal details of our lives, the NSA revelations are cataclysmic. Reports that the government can spy on virtually anything we do electronically threaten to undercut the almost-total trust we place in tech companies.

We trust Facebook with our friendships, Google with our secrets, Twitter with our stream of consciousness. Trust is the foundation of their success, and they need to be perceived as working overtime to preserve and protect this sacrosanct relationship.

So it makes perfect sense for Silicon Valley to press its case in every forum: that of public opinion; in meetings with President Obama; by lobbying lawmakers and regulators.